【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】From 1395 to 2021, Daqing Petrochemical built China’s first 3,000-ton-scale 1-octene synthesis pilot plant

On January 9, 2024, the catalyst production base project for the high-value utilization of olefins at Daqing Wulong Industrial Co., Ltd. was approved for registration. Project construction scale: includes a 1-hexene catalyst production capacity of 300 tons per year ； 1-Octene catalyst production capacity: 160 tons/year ； The catalyst production capacity for 1-butene is 40 tons per year, resulting in an overall catalyst production capacity of 500 tons per year for α-olefins. The project covers an area of 9,200 square meters, and will include the construction of office buildings, warehouses, factories, catalyst installation facilities, as well as supporting infrastructure. Total investment amount: 19.9939 million yuan. The company is a state-owned enterprise under district jurisdiction; Daqing Petrochemical Branch of China National Petroleum Corporation holds 49% of the shares, while the Longfeng District State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission holds 51%. In June 2022, the groundbreaking ceremony for Daqing Wulong Industrial Co., Ltd.’s first project in the chemical industry chain was held – the 175,000 tons per year new material industry chain project of Daqing Hanguang Industrial Co., Ltd. The total investment in this project exceeds 1.5 billion yuan, funded jointly by Wulong Industry and Jiangsu Hanguang. The project covers an area of over 80,000 square meters. In the first phase, facilities for MTBE cracking with a capacity of 30,000 tons per year, alkylphenol production units with a capacity of 30,000 tons per year, antioxidant manufacturing plants with a capacity of 40,000 tons per year, and composite antioxidant production facilities with a capacity of 45,000 tons per year, along with various supporting infrastructure and environmental protection systems, will be built. The project is now in the final stages. Daqing Petrochemical focuses on developing a new material system centered on high-carbon α-olefins, POE, and high-pressure polyethylene, to fully support the transformation of the oil refining industry and the upgrading of chemical products. Daqing Petrochemical has built a 3,000-ton-scale industrial pilot plant for 1-octene synthesis, which enables flexible switching of products: 5,000 tons of 1-hexene per year, 2,500 tons of 1-octene per year, and 1,300 tons of decene along with 2,500 tons of 1-hexene per year. PetroChina’s first kiloton-scale POE pilot plant has been built, breaking the foreign monopoly in the field of polyolefin elastomer production technology.

According to statistics, the market demand growth rate for α-olefins has consistently remained above 3%; they are primarily used as high-end polyethylene comonomers and raw materials for premium synthetic lubricant base oils, holding an important position in world trade. However, constrained by factors such as technology, and since foreign countries only sell products without transferring technology, China National Petroleum Corporation can only rely on independent research and development. This project is a major industrial field test project of China National Petroleum Corporation, and it is also one of the key research topics under the **Key Research and Development Program on ‘Advancement of Key Technologies for High-Performance Lubricant Production and Their Applications’**. The total investment for this project is 59.99 million yuan, with a floor area of 4,800 square meters. It is carried out through the renovation and expansion of Daqing Petrochemical’s 5,000-ton/year hexene-1 plant, and consists mainly of three parts: the construction of a new reaction building along with its associated equipment, the addition of buffer frames to the buffer tank area, and the renovation of the pump rooms related to the original hexene-1 plant. The complete set of technologies for producing α-olefins such as octene was independently developed by the Daqing Center of the China National Petroleum Corporation’s Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology. During the period of technical research and development, the researchers overcame various technical challenges, including the innovation in catalyst design for highly selective molecularly confined 1-octene production, the development of new production processes for the entire process, and the design of specialized industrial reactors for efficient mass transfer. As a result, Sinopec’s technology for 1-octene production became the first in China to reach the industrial demonstration stage. In November 2020, Daqing Petrochemical carried out an expansion and renovation project for the alpha-olefins facility. During the project construction process, the Project Management Department of Daqing Petrochemicals carried out systematic planning and meticulous organization, focusing on the \"four key controls\" in project management to achieve improvements in terms of schedule, cost, quality, and safety. At the same time, project construction was integrated and advanced in tandem with the special initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of Daqing Petrochemical’s operations. Through measures such as optimizing design and procurement plans, making efficient use of existing inventory, and strengthening cost management, more than 2.6 million yuan was saved.

In November 2020, Daqing Petrochemical carried out an expansion and renovation project for the alpha-olefins facility. During the project construction process, the Project Management Department of Daqing Petrochemicals carried out systematic planning and meticulous organization, focusing on the \"four key controls\" in project management to achieve improvements in terms of schedule, cost, quality, and safety. At the same time, project construction was integrated and advanced in tandem with the special initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of Daqing Petrochemical’s operations. Through measures such as optimizing design and procurement plans, making efficient use of existing inventory, and strengthening cost management, more than 2.6 million yuan was saved. The construction contractor, Daqing Petrochemical Construction Company, overcame various challenges such as a tight construction timeline, heavy workload, and the impact of the pandemic, and completed the civil engineering work to high standards, as well as the installation and commissioning of equipment, pipelines, and instrumentation control systems ； A \"6 am to 9 pm\" production campaign was launched, enabling the successful completion of 719 tons of steel structure fabrication and installation, 9,439 meters of piping work, 14,017 meters of outer pipes and heat tracing installations, as well as the installation of 74 pieces of equipment, thus ensuring that the project was delivered on schedule. As a local entity, Chemical Plant No. 2 actively cooperated with the construction party in carrying out all tasks related to the project construction. It organized and coordinated human resources and materials, and deployed employees to assist with the demolition of equipment in the old area, the installation of equipment in the new area, the construction of new utility tunnels, as well as the work at the 58 connection points. The Hexene-1 workshop has assigned dedicated personnel to oversee on-site construction, and coordinates with departments and units such as the Project Management Department, the Research Center, and Huanqiu Daqing Company to resolve various issues that arise during construction, thereby laying a solid foundation for project development and the commissioning of the facility. At present, Daqing Petrochemical is actively carrying out pre-commissioning preparations such as the preparation of technical documents for plant startup, as well as the procurement of catalysts and raw materials. Once the conditions are met, the plant will be brought online to conduct industrial tests. In the future, Daqing Petrochemical will be able to switch between producing various products such as 1-hexene, 1-octene, and decene under different operating conditions, thereby significantly enhancing China National Petroleum Corporation’s technical and industrial advantages in the field of α-olefins.

Happy New Year 2024 **********************